A lip-reed aerophone with a predominantly cylindrical bore, the trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. The most frequently encountered trombones are the tenor and bass counterparts of the trumpet. The trombone is usually characterised by a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube.
The word trombone derives from Italian tromba — "trumpet" — and -one — a suffix for "large". Thus, quite literally, a trombone is a "big trumpet". In symphonic literature, the trombone is referred to by its name in other languages, e.g. Posaune, trombón, Pasuuna, Puzon, Basun.
Construction
The trombone consists of a cylindrical tube bent into an elongated "S" shape in a complex series of tapers, the smallest being at the mouthpiece receiver, and the largest being at the throat of the bell, before the flare for the bell begins. (Careful design of these tapers is crucial to the intonation of the instrument.) As with other brass instruments, sound is produced by blowing air through closed lips producing a vibration that creates a standing wave in the instrument.
The detachable cup-shaped mouthpiece, closely related to that of the trumpet, is inserted into the mouthpiece receiver in the slide section, which consists of a leadpipe, inner and outer slide tubes, and bracing, known as inner and outer slide stays. While the stays are soldered nowadays, sackbuts were made with loose, unsoldered stays, which remained the pattern for German trombones until the mid-20th century. The leadpipe contains the venturi, which are a small constriction of the air column, which add a certain amount of resistance and to a great extent dictate the tone of the instrument; leadpipes may be soldered in permanently or interchangeable, depending on the maker.
The telescopic slide, the defining feature of the trombone, allows the player to extend the length of the air column, lowering the pitch. In order to prevent friction from slowing the action of the slide, additional sleeves were developed during the Renaissance and these stockings were soldered onto the ends of the inner slide tubes. Nowadays, the stockings are incorporated into the manufacturing process of the inner slide tubes and represent a fractional widening of the tube to accommodate the necessary method of alleviating friction. This part of the slide is of necessity lubricated on a frequent basis. Additional tubing connects the slide to the bell of the instrument through a neckpipe, and bell or back bow (U-bend). The joint connecting the slide and bell sections is furnished with a ferrule to secure the connection of the two parts of the instrument, though older models from the early 20th century and before were usually equipped with friction joints and no ancillary mechanism to tighten the joint.
The adjustment of intonation is most often accomplished with a tuning slide that is a short slide between the neckpipe and the bell incorporating the bell bow (U-bend); this device was designed by the French maker François Riedlocker during the early nineteenth century and applied to French and British designs and later in the century to German and American models, though German trombones were built without tuning slides well into the 20th century.
Like the trumpet, the trombone is considered a cylindrical bore instrument since it has sections of tubing, principally in the slide section, that are of continuous diameter. This is in contrast to conical bore instruments like the cornet, euphonium, and tuba, whose only cylindrical tubing is in the valve section. Tenor trombones typically have a bore of 0.450" (small bore) to 0.547" (large or orchestral bore) after the leadpipe and through the slide. The bore expands through the neck pipe and backbore to the bell which is typically between 7" and 8½". A number of common variations on trombone construction are noted below.
History
Until the early 18th century, the trombone was called the sackbut in English, a word with various different spellings ranging from sackbut to shagbolt and derived from the Spanish sacabuche or French sacqueboute. This was not a distinct instrument from the trombone, but rather a different name used for an earlier form. Other countries used the same name throughout the instrument's history, viz. Italian trombone and German Posaune. The sackbut was built in slightly smaller dimensions than modern trombones, and had a bell that was more conical and less flared. Today, sackbut is generally used to refer to the earlier form of the instrument, commonly used in early music ensembles. Sackbuts were (and still are) made in every size from alto to contrabass, though then as now the contrabass is very rare.
The classical trombone can usually be found in such modern ensembles as wind ensembles/concert bands, symphony orchestras, marching bands, military bands, brass bands, brass choirs, etc. It can be part of smaller groups as well, such as brass quintets, quartets, or trios, or trombone trios, quartets, or choirs (though the size of a trombone choir can vary greatly from five or six to twenty or more members). Trombones are also common in swing, jazz, salsa, and ska music.
The repertoire of trombone solo and chamber literature has its beginnings in Austria in the Classical Era where composers such as Leopold Mozart, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Johann Albrechtsberger and Johann Ernst Eberlin were featuring the instrument, often in partnership with a voice. Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart used the trombones in a number of their sacred works, including two extended duets with voice from Mozart, the best known being in the Tuba Mirum of his Requiem. The inspiration for many of these works was no doubt the virtuosic playing of Thomas Gschladt who worked in the court orchestra at Salzburg, although when his playing faded, so did the general composing output for the instrument.
While the trombone was used with some degree of regularity from the time of Monteverdi onwards as an addition to the opera house orchestra and to represent the supernatural or the funerary, it remained rather rare in the concert hall until the 19th century. During the late Classical and Romantic eras, composers from across Europe and beyond wrote for the instrument. The first example of its use in a symphony was in 1807 in a symphony in E♭ by the Swedish composer Joachim Nikolas Eggert, though the composer usually credited with its introduction into the symphony orchestra was Ludwig van Beethoven in the last movement of his Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1808); he also used them in Symphony No. 6 in F major ("Pastoral") and Symphony No. 9 ("Choral"). Many composers were directly influenced by Beethoven's use of trombones and the 19th century saw the trombones become fully integrated in the orchestra as composers such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Antonín Dvořák and many others included trombones in their orchestral compositions.
In the 20th Century the trombone maintained its important position in the orchestra with prominent parts in works by Igor Stravinsky, Edward Elgar, Leoš Janáček, Aaron Copland and Béla Bartók. In the second half of the century, new composers began giving back to the trombone a level of importance in solo and chamber music. Pieces such as Edgar Varèse's Octandre, Paul Hindemith's Sonata and Luciano Berio's Sequenza V led the way for lesser-known composers to build a wider repertoire. Popular choices for recital music today include Stjepan Sulek's Vox Gabrieli, Jacques Casterède's Sonatine and Jean Michel Defaye's Deux Danses. The best known trombone concertos from this period include works by Derek Bourgeois, Lars-Erik Larsson, Launy Grøndahl, Jan Sandström and Gordon Jacob.
Types of trombone
Tenor trombone
The tenor trombone has a fundamental note of B♭ (though tenor trombones in C were almost equally popular during the mid-19th century in Britain and France) and is usually treated as a non-transposing instrument (see below). Since trombones have no valves or keys to change the pitch by a definite amount, trombonists learn seven slide positions. The slide is in "first position" when it is retracted all the way and in "seventh position" when it is fully extended. Extending the slide from one position to the next lowers the pitch by one semitone. Thus, for each note in the harmonic series a downwards interval of up to a tritone may be added to the first position note, making the lowest note of the standard instrument an E natural. However, most professional trombonists can play lower "falset" notes and much lower pedal notes (first partials or fundamentals, which have a peculiar metallic rumbling sound) on the instrument.
Modern tenor trombones often include an extra attachment of tubing which can be activated by a trigger or valve. This device was invented by German instrument maker Christian Friedrich Sattler during the late 1830s and patented in 1839. It took its rise at a time when the old German E♭ and F bass trombones fell out of favour with orchestral players and were replaced by a B♭ tenor trombone with a larger bore and bell. This instrument, known as the tenorbass trombone by virtue of the fact that it was a tenor trombone in B♭ built with the bore and bell dimensions of the bass trombone and used to play either tenor or bass trombone parts, was adapted by Sattler to include the rotary valve attachment in order to provide a method of bridging the gap between the first partial (fundamental) B♭ in closed position and second partial E with the slide fully extended in seventh position. Though a rotary valve was used, many modern trombones use other types of valves such as the Axial Flow Valve or Hagmann Valve. The valve attachment allowed players access to low E♭, D, D♭, C and B, thus making the full range of the old bass trombone in 12' F available once more.
Although the B♭/F trombone is equipped with a valve, it is not called a valve trombone. Depressing this trigger (known colloquially in Britain and the Commonwealth as a plug) effectively changes the key of the instrument, lowering the pitch from 9' B♭ to 12' F, and facilitates, among many things, the playing of fast passages and legato sections, as well as extending the low range of the tenor trombone into that of the bass trombone. The distance between each position is longer with the valve attachment engaged; there are only six positions available to the player instead of the standard seven as the slide is too short for what is effectively a bass trombone in 12' F; the distance between positions is 4/3 as long as for a B♭ instrument. It should be noted that on this variation of the instrument, the low B (two leger lines below the bass staff) is impossible to play, unless the F attachment is tuned to E by extending the tuning slide in the attachment tubing.
Bass trombone
The modern bass trombone is pitched in B♭. It is identical in length to the 9' B♭ tenor trombone but has a wider bore and one or two valves which, when engaged, will lower the key of the instrument to 12' F (and if a second valve is fitted, to G, G♭ E, E♭ or D. depending on the design), allowing the player to bridge the gap between the first partial (fundamental) with the slide in closed position and the second partial with the slide fully extended. Bore sizes of the bass trombone are generally slightly larger than those of the largest tenor trombones. Typical specifications may include a bore size of 0.562" in the slide and 0.580" through the attachment(s), with a bell from 9" to 10.5" in diameter.
The configuration of the valves falls into one of three categories on the modern bass trombone: a simple B♭/F instrument (of larger dimensions than the B♭/F tenor trombone) equipped with one valve; a B♭/F instrument equipped with a second dependent valve, which relies on the first to be engaged before the ancillary tubing is deployed; a B♭/F instrument equipped with a second independent or in-line valve, which acts independently from the first and may be used to lower the pitch to G or G♭ individually, or to E♭ or D when used in combination with the first valve.
There is usually one bass trombone in a standard symphony orchestra (some works call for two) and it is also seen in brass bands, swing bands, wind ensembles, and a variety of brass groups; the bass trombone is usually played by the third or fourth trombonist in a trombone section, the first two or three parts usually being for tenor (and possibly alto) trombones.
Older, obsolete versions of the bass trombone were of smaller bore than the modern bass trombones described above. They were pitched in G, F, E, E♭, D or C and had a longer slide and a handle attached to the outer slide stay to allow for full extension of the slide. These older types of bass trombone were used in Europe and the British Empire; the oldest of these instruments were the E, D and C bass trombones, which were used in Europe during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods; by the 18th century the F and E♭ bass trombones were used in Germany, Austria and Sweden and the E♭ bass trombone in France, though these fell out of favour in the early nineteenth century and began to be replaced by the tenor trombone, later (after 1840) the tenorbass trombone with F rotary valve attachment. The bass trombone in G (the orchestral version was in G equipped with a rotary valve attachment actuating D) enjoyed a period of extended popularity in France during the second half of the nineteenth century, and in Great Britain and the British Empire from approximately 1850 to the 1950s, though it lingered on in some parts of Britain until the 1970s and 1980s and is still occasionally to be seen there in brass bands and period instrument orchestras.
Contrabass trombone
The contrabass trombone is usually pitched in 12' F a perfect fourth lower than the modern tenor or bass trombone and has been through a number of changes in its history. Its first incarnation during the Renaissance was in 24' F, one octave below the modern pitch of 12' F, or 18' B♭. During this period it was built as an overgrown bass trombone with a long slide and extension handle to reach the lower positions. The innovation of the double slide, in which the slide is wound back on itself to produce four tubes, each of which moves in tandem with its partner and halves the usual length of the slide shifts, took place towards the end of this period and was applied to the bass and contrabass trombones. During the nineteenth century, the contrabass trombone enjoyed a revival and it was constructed according to the double slide principle.
Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876, though the individual operas were performed separately before the entire cycle saw its première in 1876) employed the contrabass trombone for the first time in the opera house and was followed by Strauss' Elektra in 1908 and Schoenberg's mammoth cantata Gurrelieder (scored for a section of seven trombones including alto and contrabass) in 1913, although generally the contrabass trombone has not proven to be a permanent addition to the opera or concert orchestra and is only required in a small number of mainly 20th century works.
In 1921 Ernst Dehmel, a German inspector of orchestras and bass trombonist from Berlin, patented a new design of contrabass trombone utilising the old German military band bass trombone in F equipped with two independent rotary valves to replace the handle required on the long slide and to fill in the missing notes between the first partial (fundamental) in closed position and the second partial with the slide fully extended. This bass-contrabass instrument is the precursor of the modern contrabass trombone, which is still largely constructed according to the same principles and to all intents and purposes completely replaced the older double slide variety, which is very rarely seen today. Bore sizes for the slide of the contrabass trombone are typically in the 0.567" to 0.635" range; the most common sizes on contrabass trombones in F are between 0.567" and 0.580" as the larger sizes are usually reserved for the contrabass trombone in low B♭. The bell diameter is typically 10"-11".
The use of a contrabass trombone almost always requires the addition of a fourth player to the trombone section and while in the past parts for the instrument were sometimes played on a tuba or, more recently, a bass trombone, it is nowadays considered unacceptable to use anything but a contrabass trombone to play these parts, at least in professional settings. Most opera house orchestras and some symphony orchestras require the bass trombonist to double on the contrabass trombone. More about contrabass trombones.
Alto trombone
The alto trombone is pitched in E♭ (occasionally with a D or B♭ rotary valve attachment) or F, a perfect fourth or fifth higher than the tenor trombone and was commonly used from the 16th to the 18th centuries as the highest voice in the brass choir, though it declined in popularity from the early 19th century, when trombones became an established section in the symphony orchestra, and was replaced by a tenor trombone as the range of the parts can usually be covered by the tenor instrument. While some first trombonists have used the alto trombone as indicated, it was unfashionable from the mid-19th century to the late 20th and has only recently enjoyed something of a revival.
As the slide is shorter, the positions are different from the tenor and bass trombones and as most players are familiar with the slide positions of the B♭ trombone, it is easy to why the instrument fell out of favour, especially with the increase in upper range and flexibility cultivated by and demanded of first trombonists in the 19th and 20th centuries. The tone of the alto is more brilliant than that of the tenor or bass trombone. The bore of an alto trombone is similar to that of a small tenor trombone — usually around 0.450"–0.500", with a 6.5" or 7" bell.
The alto trombone is primarily used in choral, orchestral and operatic settings, although it has enjoyed a history as a solo instrument, primarily in 18th century Vienna. Modern composers have rediscovered the instrument and the alto trombone has begun making more appearances in modern compositions. Nowadays professional orchestral tenor trombonists are expected to play the alto trombone and famous works to include this instrument include Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, Requiem and Die Zauberflöte, Haydn's Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten, Beethoven's Symphony Nos. 5, 6 & 9 and Missa Solemnis, Schubert's Symphonies 7, 8 & 9, Mass in A♭ and Mass in E♭, Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 "Lobgesang", Symphony No. 5 "Die Reformation", Elijah, incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Ruy Blas, Schumann's Symphonies 1-4, Brahms' Symphonies 1-4, Akademische Festouvertüre, Tragische Ouvertüre, and Ein deutsches Requiem, as well as a handful of 20th century works including Schoenberg's mammoth cantata Gurrelieder (scored for a section of seven trombones including alto and contrabass) and Britten's Burning Fiery Furnace.
Soprano trombone
The soprano trombone is usually pitched in B♭ an octave above the tenor and built with a bore size of between 0.450" and 0.470" and a trumpet-sized bell. It appears to have been created in the late 17th century, from which the earliest surviving examples date. It was used in German-speaking lands to play the treble part in chorales, and this tradition survives in the Moravian trombone choir at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. During the 20th century some manufacturers made soprano trombones as doubling instruments for jazz cornet players, dubbing them slide cornets, or as a novelty, but the instrument has never been widely used or enjoyed much popularity. It rather lacks its own character and historically had little validity as it was easily replaced by the cornett or woodwind instruments and the short shifts make it difficult to play in tune. The soprano trombone is usually played by a trumpeter owing to the high pitch of the instrument.
Sopranino and piccolo trombones
The sopranino trombone and piccolo trombone are even smaller and higher instruments than the soprano. They are also extremely rare. Sopranino and piccolo are pitched in high E♭ and B♭ respectively, one octave above the alto and soprano trombones. They are called for in some trombone choir literature. Bore sizes vary between 0.430" and 0.400" respectively, with 4" bells. Owing to the very high pitch of these instruments, they are played exclusively by trumpeters.
Valve trombone
Valve trombones, although potentially in any pitch, almost always have the same tonal range as a tenor trombone, though a somewhat different attack, as they are shaped more like very large trumpets. Some musicians consider them difficult to play in tune, although a small minority (often former trumpeters whose embouchures are more suitable to lower-ranged instruments but prefer not to learn slide technique) prefer them to the more common slide trombone. The valve trombone has been built in every size from alto to contrabass, though it is principally the tenor valve trombone which has seen the most widespread use.
The valve trombone enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 19th century when the technology of rotary valve and piston valve instruments was developing rapidly. With the mass production of better quality, reliable, slide trombones starting at the end of the 19th century, the slide trombone regained its popularity during the late 19th century.
Other instruments with similar range and tone quality are the baritone horn and euphonium. Wagner also wrote a part for a bass trumpet in his Ring Cycle and the part is normally played by a trombonist on the bass trumpet. A handful of other works in the classical repertoire also use this instrument. Certain passages of music are significantly easier to play on a valve trombone, while others are easier on a slide trombone. A bass or contrabass version of the valve trombone is the cimbasso.
An unusual variation has both a slide and valves. These were first manufactured in the early 20th century, have sometimes been known as a valide trombone, but is now best known as a superbone.
Playing the trombone
As with all brass instruments, progressive tightening of the lips and increased air pressure allow the player to move to a different partial, up the harmonic series. In the lower range, significant movement of the slide is required, but for higher notes the player need only use four or fewer positions of the slide, since the partials are closer together, allowing higher notes to be played in alternate positions; for example, F natural (at the bottom of the treble clef) may be played in both first, fourth and sixth positions. The note E1 [or the lowest E on a standard 88-key piano] is the lowest attainable note on a 9' B♭ tenor trombone, requiring a full 2.24 m of tubing, but the repertoire seldom demands anything below G1.
The trombone (unlike most brass instruments) is not usually a transposing instrument and reads the bass clef (especially bass trombones), although it is common for trombone music to be written also in tenor clef or alto clef. The use of alto clef is usually confined to orchestral first trombone parts intended for the alto trombone, with the second (tenor) trombone part written in tenor clef and the third (bass) part in bass clef. As the alto trombone declined in popularity during the 19th century, this practice was gradually abandoned and first trombone parts came to be annotated in the tenor or bass clefs. Exceptions to this occur often in Russian and older Eastern European orchestral music, where many pieces have both first and second (tenor) trombones annotated in the alto clef.
In brass band music, however, the trombone is treated like all the other members (except the bass trombone) as a transposing instrument in B♭ and reads the treble clef. By happy coincidence, this puts the notes in exactly the same stave position as they would be if the music were written in a (non-transposing) tenor clef, though the key signature must be adjusted. This is no mere coincidence, for brass bands used to employ a section of alto, tenor and bass trombones in the early to mid-19th century, later replacing the alto with a tenor trombone, all the while annotated in the corresponding clef. Eventually a decision was taken to replace the tenor clef with the transposing B♭ treble clef in order to aid new starters to integrate more quickly and effectively in the brass band, though the bass trombone, then in G, remained (and is still) annotated in concert pitch bass clef. An accomplished performer is expected to be proficient in reading parts annotated in bass clef, tenor clef, alto clef, and (more rarely) treble clef in C, with the British brass band performer expected to handle treble clef in B♭ as well.
A variety of mutes can be used with the trombone to alter its timbre, including the cup mute, straight mute, harmon mute, bucket mute, solotone mute and wah-wah mute. In addition to mutes which are fitted inside the bell by means of cork grips, other effects are used (especially in jazz playing) with objects held in the hand in front of the bell or moved in and out of the bell. These include a wah-wah effect with a metal cup which looks like a bowler hat, and the plunger, which looks like (and often is) the rubber suction cup from a sink plunger. On occasion real hats have been used, as have soap dishes, saucepans and even stranger objects.
Variations in construction
Bells
Trombone bells (and sometimes slides) may be constructed of more than just yellow brass. The most common material is yellow brass, comprising 70% copper and %30 zinc, though other materials used include gold brass (85% copper, 15% zinc) and red brass (90% copper, 10% zinc). These different materials affect the tone quality of the instrument and change the timbre quite considerably. Some manufacturers now offer interchangeable bells so that the player can select which bell he prefers according to the artistic requirements. Tenor trombone bells are usually between 7" and 9" in diameter, the most common being sizes from 7½" to 8½". The smallest sizes are found in small jazz trombones and older narrow bore instruments, while the larger sizes are common in orchestral models. The bell may be constructed out of two separate brass sheets or out of one single piece of metal and hammered on a mandrel until the part is shaped correctly. The edge of the bell may be finished with or without a piece of bell wire to secure it, which also affects the tone quality; most bells are built with bell wire.
Valve attachments
Valves
Some trombones have valves instead of a slide: see valve trombone, above. Slide trombone valve attachments may be fitted with rotary valves, or sometimes with piston or disc valves, which are modern variations on types of valve invented during the 1820s.
Tubing
More often than not, tenor trombones with an F attachment have a larger bore through the attachment than through the straight section (the portion of the trombone through which the air flows when the attachment's trigger is not depressed). Typically, for orchestral instruments, the slide bore is 0.547" and the attachment tubing bore is 0.562". A wide variety of valve attachments and combinations are available. Valve attachment tubing usually incorporates a small tuning slide so that the attachment tubing is able to be tuned separately from the rest of the instrument. Most B♭/F tenor and bass trombones include a tuning slide, which is long enough to lower the pitch to E with the valve tubing engaged, enabling the production of low B.
Tuning
Some trombones (principally bass trombones) are tuned through a mechanism in the slide section (Tuning-in-the-Slide or "TIS") rather than via a separate tuning slide in the bell section. This method preserves as long and smooth as possible an expansion from the start of the bell section to the bell flare. The tuning slide in the bell section requires two portions of cylindrical tubing in an otherwise conical part of the instrument, which of necessity affects the tone quality. For the sake of convenience and ease of production, most trombones feature this device, which in instruments with no valve attachment is often completed by the addition of a counterbalance weight to offset the weight of the slide.
Slides
Common and popular bore sizes for trombone slides are 0.500", 0.508", 0.525" and 0.547" for tenor trombones, and 0.562" for bass trombones. The slide may also be built with a dual-bore configuration, in which the bore of the second leg of the slide is slightly larger than the bore of the first leg, producing a step-wise conical effect. The most common dual-bore combinations are 0.500"-0.508", 0.508"-0.525", and 0.525"-0.547", 0.547"-0.562" for tenor trombones, and 0.562"-0.578" for bass trombones.
Regional variations
Germany & Austria
German trombones have been built in a wide variety of bore and bell sizes and differ substantially from American designs in many aspects. From the mouthpiece to the bell, there is a great deal of difference in how the traditional German Konzertposaune is constructed. The mouthpiece is typically rather small and is placed into a slide section that uses very long leadpipes of at least 12"-24". The whole instrument is often constructed of gold brass and this naturally characterises the sound, which is usually rather dull compared with British, French or American designs. While bore sizes were considered large in the 19th century, German trombones have altered very little over the last 150 years and are now typically somewhat smaller than their American counterparts. Bell sizes remain very large in all sizes of German trombone and in bass trombones may exceed 10" in diameter. Valve attachments in tenor and bass trombones were traditionally constructed to be engaged via a thumb-operated rotary valve equipped with a leather thong rather than a metal lever. Older models are still to be found with this feature, though modern variants use the metal lever. As with other German & Austrian brass instruments, rotary valves are used to the exclusion of almost all other types of valve, even in valve trombones. Other features often found on German trombones include long waterkeys and snake decorations on the slide and bell U-bows.
France
French trombones were built in the very smallest bore sizes up to the end of the Second World War and whilst other sizes were made there, the French usually preferred the tenor trombone to any other size. French music, therefore, usually employed a section of three tenor trombones up to the mid-20th century. Tenor trombones produced in France during the 19th and early 20th centuries featured bore sizes of around 0.450", small bells of not more than 6" in diameter, as well as a funnel-shaped mouthpiece slightly larger than that of the cornet or French horn. French tenor trombones were built in both C and B♭, altos in D♭ sopranos in F, piccolos in high B♭, basses in G and E♭, contrabasses in B♭.